Possibly Scan Lines

Question

HelloThe digitized transferred 8mm film I am working on is black & white.There is work to do to fix this material for potential upload to YouTube.The owner of the film said to fix the 'banding' I would need to work with his suggested method. I do not know how to do that.I have attached captures from several films to show the intrusive artifact, white streaming streaking lines. I goggled 'banding, horizontal lines' and so forth. I could find no description of what those lines are named.To work on the film especially those lines I need to know what they are named. Then I could research how to possibly make corrections. The film may be 20 minutes however the lines flutter in and out here and there leaving most of the film viewable. What exactly is I dealing with and is there a method to fix these aberrations.The owner said his methods works - I don't know how to do that.Let me know if you can help with this difficulty.Thanks! Owners Method:Here is the method for eliminating banding.Example: Picture has bands covering 10 scan lines.If horizontal lines 90 to 100 are disrupted by  bands.Then the good scan lines 89 and 101 are averaged to replace the 95 scan line.Then 95 and 101 are averaged to produce a new scan line to replace 98.Then 95 and 98 are averaged to replace 97.Then 97 and 95 are averaged to replace 96.The result is that 4 scan lines 95 to 98 are entirely replaced by new scan lines with no band across.This same procedure is used to replace the other bands covering the picture. Please note: This is not a simple repeat of good scans over bad.But it is a gradual change from one good scan line to the next so the picture is not static. I hope this is clear. This process can be automated but I do not know if anyone is doing it. Attachments

Rick Gerard · Accepted Answer

Those problems occur when you don't use the proper equipment to make digital copies of motion picture films. Equipment ranges from a variable speed projector projecting on a screen that is being shot with a cheap digital camera or a smartphone to true film scanning equipment. The latter is expensive, but it will provide an accurate copy of every original frame and you can either request raw copies or color corrected and enhanced copies.

I agree with Mylenium. The repair process for that kind of problem is not easily automated and it requires a lot of time.

The artifacts look like errors from damaged videotape or clogged heads on the machine that was used to digitize the footage. They don't look at all like damaged film. I've worked extensively with historical footage for several documentaries and transferred more than a couple hundred hours of old footage to videotape. None of the problem frames look like damaged film.

Starting at the top right frames 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 10, 11, and 13 have very little chance of being repaired with any kind of automated formula. You would need a digital artist to repaint those frames by hand.

In the late 90's I was involved with an extensive 2" (Quad) videotape restoration and conversion to HD project for another documentary and those artifacts look very familiar. If the original footage is still available it is going to be a lot better to just send it out to a proper professional facility that can actually scan the frames and deliver a lossless digital master. If all you have to work with are these corrupted video files it's going to take a very long time.

Mylenium · Answer

That looks more like a serious film restoration job and just averaging the lines sounds like a terrible idea since you're throwing away more of the already sparse actual information due to the blurriness and other artifacts. As far as I'm concerned This would require a much more meticulous approach where you actually sample lines from retimed duplicates, mask stuff out, use clone stamps, reconstruct shapes with masks and so on to using semi-automated functions like adaptive blurs and of course Content Aware Fill et al.

Mylenium

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